sed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and
instructing us by his word, leading us into all truth, and making us
both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word. And I cannot
see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of
religion, which have made such confusions in the world, would have been
to us, if we could have obtained it.--But I must go on with the
historical part of things, and take every part in its order.

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could
understand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though
in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own history, or at
least so much of it as related to my coming to this place; how I had
lived here, and how long: I let him into the mystery, for such it was to
him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot. I gave him a
knife; which he was wonderfully delighted with; and I made him a belt,
with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in
the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only
as good a weapon, in some cases, but much more useful upon other
occasions.

I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England, which I
came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one
another, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gave
him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, and showed
him, as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten
in pieces before, and gone. I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we
lost when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength
then; but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat,
Friday stood musing a great while, and said nothing. I asked him what it
was he studied upon? At last, says he, "Me see such boat like come to
place at my nation." I did not understand him a good while; but, at
last, when I had examined farther into it, I understood by him, that a
boat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where he
lived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of
weather. I presently imagined that some European ship must have been
cast away upon their coast, and the boat might get loose, and drive
ashore; but was so dull, that I never once thought of men making their
escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they might come: so I only